The Host of Monsters
by GearsofAwesomeness
Summary: Naruto steals the Forbidden Scroll of Seals for Mizuki, but instead of discovering the Kage Bushin, he finds something far more sinister. No pairings as of yet.
1. Chapter 1

Welllll it certainly has been a while. I got disconnected from FF for a while, but now I'm BACK! I've been reading for a while, and I think it's time I try my hand at writing again. Note: My other story, Anti-Naruto Environment #1, is discontinued. I made a bad writers error, starting something I didn't finish, and then lost track of where it was going…. SORRY! Anyways. If any of you readers want to steal the plotline, or any of my OCs, feel free! My creativity is your creativity. Yes, well enough nostalgia. I'm starting a COMPLETELY new work. I've got a pretty good idea of where it's going. Hopefully, it'll work itself out. This is more of just an experiment on what I'm going to do with my writing again. Updates will be most likely irregular. I may put up a chapter a day (Unlikely), or a may be a little while if the plot fairy skips my block (more likely). BUT anyways. He we go, NEW STORY TIME!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I diiiid. Well. Kekekekekekekeke!

Sidenote: To people coming back, this may be a little darker then my other story. Well a LOT darker. But whatever.

Naruto gazed solemnly out across Konohana from his perch up top of the Yondaime's head. He sighed, in a rather melancholy mood that day. The ramen bar that he frequented was closed down for some time due too a boiler explosion. Iruka was gone with old man Hokage, and the area that he trained himself in was overcrowded with shinobi. The last thought worsened his already poor mood.

He had failed. Again.

The academy's requirements had not changed the last time he failed the test, and he was unable to meet the standard for the third time. Iruka-Sensei had looked very sad as he told Naruto that he would not be a genin, and Mizuki-Sensei gave him a sorrowful pat on the back.

But Naruto couldn't help but notice a strange glimmer in Mizuki's eyes that didn't look like remorse at all.

Naruto felt a cool breeze pass through his hair, and he abruptly realized how dark it had become. He stumbled to his feet on top of the statue of his hero, and began the long trek to his unfriendly home.

As he walked home in a sad stupor, Naruto was oblivious to the glares and hateful mutterings of the villagers around him. He merely remained in his own world, dismal at the prospect of never being a shinobi.

A light touch brought him out of his sad world, and he turned around to see the grinning face of Mizuki.

"Naruto! Just the guy I was looking for. I've got something that I need to talk to you about. It's got to do with your academy grade."

"My academy grade? But I failed, Mizuki-Sensei, what else can I do?" Naruto sighed, still sad about his misfortune.

Mizuki grinned again, "Naruto I think that I have something that can remedy that."

Naruto crouched down on the ground, 'this should be far enough out' he thought to himself, 'now I can get too work on that jutsu for Mizuki-Sensei!'

Naruto smiled as he pulled the huge scroll off his back and thought about how easy it had been to dupe the guards of said scroll. All he had to do was pop his Sexy Jutsu and they all got KOed! It even worked on old man Hokage!

"OK! So, all I have to do is learn the first jutsu from the scroll and show it to Mizuki-Sensei, and then I'll be a Genin!" Naruto said to himself, still grinning widely. He looked at the scroll and saw that there was a small seal keeping the scroll shut tight. He picked at it a bit, and realized that it would take a bit more effort to fully remove.

Naruto lay the scroll down on the ground, put his foot against the forbidden scroll, and tugged, hard, against the seal.

To his happiness, the seal came off. Unfortunately, so did a large section of the first part of the scroll. The prankster cried out in dismay, frantically trying to piece the part of the scroll back together. But the ripped part of the scroll quickly disintegrated into dust, blowing away into the wind, forever lost.

Naruto fell to his knees in despair, positive that his final chance at becoming a genin was lost. As he bemoaned his fortune, the forgotten scroll shifted in the wind, and another section of the scroll slipped out.

Glancing over at the scroll, an idea quickly formed in the young tricksters mind. "I'm pretty sure Mizuki-Sensei won't notice if I don't use the FIRST jutsu from the scroll." Naruto scooted over to the scroll and lifted it up,

his eyes quickly scanning over the SECOND jutsu.

"Hey, wait, what IS this?" Naruto exclaimed.

On the scroll there was an intricate seal, spanning about half a foot in diameter. The seal was red, and the squiggles and lines looked like a whirlpool of blood printed on the sheet. Below the seal was a set of instructions for releasing a seal, presumably the seal found on the old scroll. And below those instructions was a name.

"Whoa... Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume ... What the heck is this?"

'Claws of The Blood Spirit' The blonde ninja-to-be wondered. "Wait a second, this isn't even a jutsu! Its like a sealed item or something. Agh, whatever! Mizuki-Sensei will still be impressed if I get this thing out of here." Naruto decided.

He read and followed the simple instructions for the releasing of the seal. He went through some weird seals, ones that he had never learned in the academy. After making about 20 hand-contorting seals, he read the next step.

"Blood sacrifice?", Naruto said, confused, "Weird, but if I can get this done, anything's worth it!"

With renewed vigor, he quickly bit his thumb with his overlong canine, and spread it along the seal like the instructions said. The seal glowed faintly, startling the blonde, but he carried on until he had painted a spiral in the seal with his blood like the instructions said.

The seal began pulsating, a steady 'thrum... thrum... thrum...' and the glowing grew until it was practically shining, a bloody red filling the forest with light.

Face bathed in the bright red light, Naruto read the last line of instructions. He put his hands in the only familiar seal he had found on this scroll, and said a word he had learned in his first year of academy.

"KAI!"

A sound like none other heard upon the world echoed in the forest clearing. A demonic, screaming roar filled the forest clearing. But as soon as the noise came, it was gone, leaving only shattered echoes behind.

Naruto, keeled over from shock, quickly jumped to his feet and whirled around, trying to find the source of the noise.

The only thing in the clearing besides a terrified boy, and an old scroll, was something Naruto had never seen before.

It was big, easily as long as his arm, maybe longer. It looked like a metal glove with an extended arm piece. Spikes, nearly two inches long, were spread every inch or so along the arm plate. The glove, if you could call it that, was metal plate, with spikes on the tip of each knuckle. Each finger ended in a brutal claw, slightly curved. The entire thing was a dark red, like someone had painted an originally black glove-thingy over with red paint.

As he ogled the weird "glove-thingy", Naruto remembered one of the only historical lessons he had paid any attention too. In the Foreign Warfare Unit, Iruka-Sensei had talked about people from the West who fully clad themselves in heavy metal armor. Each piece had a different name, and the hand piece had a special one as well.

"A gauntlet?" Naruto said aloud, bemused by the turn of events.

However, as soon as Naruto said the name of the item on the ground, something very strange happened to the gauntlet.

It moved.

The claws on the end of the gauntlet began twitching, creating small grooves in the soft forest earth. It shuddered a little, causing it to rattle slightly.

Naruto, completely weirded out now, gasped at the strange object.

At his exclamation of surprise, something even stranger happened.

The claws of the gauntlet lifted themselves up, and then slammed into the ground. It lifted the back of the glove up, now standing nearly a foot and a half into the air. From its new positioning, Naruto could see the wicked spike on the back of the gauntlet, extending outwards a few inches. But his attention was immediately distracted as something really, really scary happened.

The gauntlet started skittering towards him, like some huge, terrifying crab.

Our favorite blonde knucklehead could only think of one thing too do.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Sadly, he began running far too late and the metal claws sunk into his back, bringing him to the ground.

Naruto whirled onto his back hoping to force off the demonic piece of metal, but, like some demented lizard, it squirmed around onto his front side, clawing into his chest. Naruto grabbed the glove part of the strange metal object, hoping that he would be able to throw it off and then run away to find Mizuki-Sensei.

However his struggles stopped when the gauntlet did something odd.

The gauntlet's arm piece opened.

Formerly a tube, the arm part split evenly down the middle, opening like a treasure chest, facing into Naruto's face.

Naruto screamed.

The inside of the gauntlet was lined with disgusting, dark flesh, with red veins lining up to the enter of the inside of the arm guard. In the middle was an eye, a pure black orb, emanating evil. The edge of the arm guard, where it had split down the middle, was lined with pale white serrations.

'Holy CRAP!' Naruto realized, 'those are freaking TEETH!'

The evil, dark eye in the middle of the arm guard met with Naruto's scared, bright blue eyes for a split second, and then the gauntlet turned and clamped down, hard, on Naruto's right arm, shredding through his orange jumpsuit sleeve.

Naruto experienced a moment of blinding pain,and then his mind sank into an ocean of red.

Deep in the bowels of Naruto's mind, there is a sewer. If you follow the pipelines, through the stinking water, you'll come across a door. But it wasn't just a door. It was huge, stretching up to the ceiling of the sewer, its dark iron bars preventing light from seeping into the other side of the door.

On the other side of the door, a beast resided.

The Kyuubi, Lord of demons, King of Foxes, laid in the stagnant water of his jail. It was again thinking about how it would escape the child it had been sealed into.

As Kyuubi daydreamed about tearing apart the Yondaime bit by bit, an evil feeling started to spread throughout the jail. A smell, something like a rotting corpse, permeated throughout the jail of the monster.

The Kyuubi started out of his bloody fantasies when it felt the presence. It sniffed, and it's eyes widened in recognition.

"**YOU! You DARE to intrude in the mind that is mine! This body is mine to control, mine to destroy! I will not allow an upstart spirit to control my host!" **The Kyuubi roared.

The Kyuubi forced his chakra through the prison into his hosts body, attempting to purge the unclean presence from the body the demon was destined to control.

Mizuki grinned evilly as he raced through the forest towards the place he had told the demon brat to wait for him. It had been easy to convince the dumb brat to get the Forbidden Scroll of Seals. The demon had been so desperate to move on that it hadn't even questioned his precious "Mizuki-Sensei".

That idiocy would be it's downfall.

Mizuki came up close to the designated meeting place, and felt and explosion of evil feeling chakra.

The Sensei came up short, startled by the amount of unrecognizable chakra.

But nearly as soon as it came, it was quenched by the more familiar, overpoweringly demonic chakra of the Nine tailed Fox. The two chakras began a war of domination, the power switching often between the two.

Mizuki was worried for a second, but then delusions of grandeur came up in his head. Images of him being praised as the savior of the village for destroying the demon flew through his mind, and he carried on, certain that his abilities would overpower the weak academy student.

Bursting through the tree foliage, Mizuki looked upon the form of his worst, and most hated, student.

The demon child was writhing on the ground, the scroll forgotten at his side. Overwhelming amounts of chakra was flying around, making the very air thick with malice. The brat's eyes were shut tight, it's mouth opened in a silent scream of pain.

Mizuki ignored the strange armor plate on the demon's arm, instead reaching for the scroll by Naruto's side.

But as soon as his arm came within range of Naruto, his eye's snapped open, and the metal covered arm reached up and grabbed the traitor teacher's limb.

Mizuki gasped as pain lanced through up to his shoulder and he gazed down into the eyes of his former student.

Naruto's eyes had turned pure black, and a dark aura was emanating from them like a putrid mist. The child's mouth opened, and a dark voice spoke out.

"**YOU MUST. FEED. THE THIRST... DIE!"** the dark voice screamed through the child's body.

Mizuki only had time for a short yell, before he was set upon by a monster.

Iruka darted through the forest, the Hokage's words echoing in his mind.

"Iruka-san," the aged Hokage stated, "you must be the one who finds Naruto first. I'm afraid that some of the other chunin or jounin might claim that he 'resisted' and... Get rid of him. You MUST find him quickly!"

With those stern words in mind, Iruka sped through the forest to where he had felt a strange surge of chakra. Leaping from branch to branch, Iruka started as a smell reached his nose.

The smell of blood. A lot of blood.

Fearing the worst had happened, Iruka began to push his limits, racing towards the metallic scent. He would have darted past the scene, if it had not been for the primordial roar that ripped through the foliage of the forest.

Skidding to a halt, Iruka fell into the clearing below him, witnessing a scene out of nightmares.

The grass had changed from a bright green, to a soaked red. The trees themselves had turned from their natural brown, to a gross, dark crimson. The worst was the boy standing in the middle of it.

Naruto stood, arms spread wide, over the dismembered corpse of... Someone, Iruka couldn't even tell who it had been due to the amount of damage done to the body. He then noticed the metal gauntlet covering Naruto's right arm, and saw that it was covered in blood, staining it a dark shade a red.

Naruto's eyes darted over to the stunned form of Iruka, his normally excited blue eyes a black maelstrom of fury. He darted towards his teacher, grabbed him, and threw him over his shoulder into one of the crimson trees.

Still stunned by the appearance of Naruto, Iruka was caught completely off-guard by the sudden attack slammed into the tree hard. Coughing, The scarred Sensei looked up again, and saw that Naruto was preparing to charge outwards him again, this time, with his new claws extended forwards for a finishing blow.

"No! Naruto, stop!" Iruka called desperately.

Naruto charged forward anyways, and Iruka closed his eyes, unwilling to hurt the person he saw as his younger brother, ready to accept his fate.

Eyes screwed shut, Iruka was surprised when he did not feel his abdominal cavity being ripped apart. His eyes cracked open, and gasped quietly, as the claws on the red gauntlet were right in front of his face. But beyond that, the terrified blue eyes of the real Naruto Uzumaki looked into his own brown ones.

"Help... Me... They... They're fighting. Inside me!" Naruto gasped out, the claws on the gauntlet trembling slightly with supposed strain.

"I can't... Stop them... Help!" Naruto staggered away from his favorite teacher, hands, metal and flesh, gripping his head as he screamed in pain.

Naruto's eyes began to flash in rapid succession, switching from a malicious red, a furious black, and a terrified blue. The war of eyes continued, Naruto screaming in pain all the while. Red, black, blue, and red again! The cycle continued, going faster and faster as Naruto curled up, his cream turning into a keening wail.

Iruka acted quickly, leaping over to Naruto, and knocking him out with a pressure point hit.

When he hauled, Naruto up into his arms, the strange claw on the boy's arm began twitching towards Iruka's chest. Thinking quickly, he bound the arm to Naruto's side with ninja wire, and tied the claws together with the same.

He lifted up Naruto in a fireman's carry, and began darting through the trees towards the Hokage tower. Hopefully, the Sandaime would be able to fix the problem with Naruto's mind, and find out why Naruto had taken the Forbidden Scroll of Seals in the first place.

'Please,' Iruka thought to himself as he ran through the large trees of Konohana, 'Please don't lose yourself, Naruto.'

Whew, and that's it. Nearly 3k words, im proud of myself! Lemme know what you think of my start back. Review if you feel like it, and flames are fine. Constructive criticism makes me a better writer! Anyways, I dunno when i'll get another chapter out. Hopefully soon, but i'll have to see. On that note, Adios readers!

GearsofAwesomeness


	2. Chapter 2

Hello again everyone! I decided that, since I have so much freetime in the summer, that I would begin my NEW CHAPTER! I am very happy that people read this, and I thank .Alpha for leaving a kind first review d^_^b. Anyways, heres the next chappie!

Sidenote: Im sorry the breaks didn't work on the first chapter T_T…. I fixed them though :D

Disclaimer: Iway on'tday ownway arutonay.

* * *

Deep within Naruto's mind, a battle raged on. The dark, foul chakra of the gauntlet's spirit was clashing constantly with the demonic, fiery chakra of the Kyuubi. In the midst of the hurricane of power, a tiny, seemingly insignificant clump of blue chakra desperately tried to assert itself. It was futile however, as the two other monstrous chakras battled for dominance.

But it seemed as if the dark chakra was winning.

The Kyuubi, inside of the cage built for it was straining, trying to force more and more chakra through the bars of its prison. But the seal was beginning to limit it, making the red chakra retreat back to the demon lord. The Fox fell back a bit, straining like it never had within the seal.

"**Damnable creature! I will not be bested by a pitiful spirit like you! This host belongs to me!" **the Kyuubi roared.

The dark chakra, with no limiters like the Kyuubi, was implanting itself into the mind of its new host. Only the fraying interference of the Kyuubi kept the black chakra from fully taking over.

As the war between the two behemoth chakras continued, the blue chakra began to slowly ebb away.

Soon, the small pool of chakra would disappear completely, drowned in the sea of malicious energy.

XXXXXXXXXX

Iruka dashed through the Village Hidden in the Leaves, zooming like a bullet towards the Hokage tower. He clutched Naruto close to his chest, praying, pleading that the boy would make it boy was gasping, eyes screwed shut, obviously in pain. Though Naruto didn't have any physical wounds, Iruka could tell that the mental war inside of Naruto was destroying him from the inside.

As Iruka came up to the entrance to the Hokage tower, he was stopped by the two chunin guards.

"Iruka-san! What's going on?"

"We heard someone stole the Forbidden scroll!"

"Enough!" Iruka yelled, frustrated that people would get in his way, "I'm on a mission for the Hokage! Get out of my way so I can go too him!"

The guards leaped out of the way, stunned that the normally polite, quiet teacher would blow up at them like that. As the desperate sensei darted through, the guards finally spotted the blood covered boy that Iruka was carrying with him.

Confused, but loyal, the guards stayed at their posts, confident that they would get answers from their buddies at the bar later.

* * *

Iruka crashed into a desk, flipped over it and continued on his mad dash up through the tower, still gripping Naruto close to his chest.

As he leaped over a screaming secretary, Iruka contemplated the worst. Looking at the visibly fluctuating chakra floating over Naruto, he thought,

'Hokage-sama should be able to fix this insane chakra, if he can't help, then no one can!'

When the speeding teacher finally made it up to the Hokage's Office, an anbu was there to see him crash up the stairs. The anbu nodded in his direction, opened the door to the office, and said, "Hokage-Sama, Iruka-san has returned." "Send him in, now" the strong voice of the Hokage said.

Iruka nodded in thanks to the anbu, and sped into the office.

The Hokage sat back in his chair, but once he saw the state that Naruto was in, he leaped to his feet and ran over to inspect the blond.

As his old hands ran over the boy, checking for injuries, he touched the blood soaked gauntlet. Recoiling in horror, the Hokage cursed, "Damn! That blasted gauntlet! Come Iruka, quickly, set him down."

Iruka laid the young man down on the rug in the Hokage's office, worried about the Hokage's reaction to the gauntlet. The Hokage looked at Iruka, his face completely serious, "Iruka. You must tell me what you saw. Describe what you came upon EXACTLY."

As Iruka explained what happened in the forest clearing, the Hokage stripped the jacket off of Naruto's chest. The blond boy was drenched in blood. The gauntlet had clamped down on the arm, the metal ending at the elbow. There was no visible flesh underneath it. The metal gauntlet completely covered all of Naruto's fingers and arm. The spike at the end extended three or four inches out from the end of his elbow, and the claws totally covered Naruto's hand.

The aged Hokage cursed again, and ran over to his desk. From there, he pulled an ink-pot and brush and dashed back over to Naruto. Iruka kneeled by the boy's side, worry written all over his face.

"Iruka."

The stern sound of his name broke Iruka free of his reverie and he looked into the focused face of the Sandaime.

"I am going to make a Containment Seal on Naruto's shoulder. It should be able to stop most of the evil chakra from leaking through into his system. The Seal should also be able to rip out the chakra that has already implanted itself. But I am going to need your help." At this the Hokage's expression grew even more serious. "You must help me keep Naruto stabilized throughout the procedure. His body will try to reject the seal, so you have to make sure that he doesn't ruin the procedure. Can I count on you to do whatever is necessary to make sure Naruto doesn't move?"

Iruka gazed down at the boy he saw as his own sibling, and his face hardened at the sight of the poor boy in pain. The kind sensei looked up at the older man and said, with a determined look on his face, "You can count on me, Hokage-Sama. I want to save this boy as much as you."

The wrinkled face of the Hokage broke into a small smile, and then he set to work on making the seal on the child's arm.

* * *

The battle was nearly won for the dark chakra. Nearly all the Kyuubi's chakra had been forced back by the power of the Yondaime's Seal, and the blue chakra never stood a chance in the wake of the tidal wave of darkness.

But just when the body was about to fully succumb to the will of the darkness; tendrils began breaking out around where the darkness originally emanated from. These tendrils, blacker then the darkness surrounding them, began to tether and weave the dark chakra back to its source.

The evil chakra tried desperately to regain its hold on the host's mind, struggling against the black tendrils that tried to corral the evil back. The tendrils became stronger as each second passed, and soon, the ocean of malice was forced back into its place of beginning. The tendrils weaved themselves into a wall, blocking the evil chakra from attempting to push back through.

With the evil chakra forced back by the black tendrils, and the demonic chakra of the Kyuubi kept in check by its own seal, the blue chakra began to reclaim its lost territory. It permeated throughout the warzone, healing interior damage, and returning the area to its former look.

Within the darkness, behind the wall of tendrils, a strange mist began crawling along, oozing together into a blob within the shadow. A being manifested, humanoid in shape, but lacking defining characteristics. All that could be seen was a single eye on the "head" of the body.

The eye burned with fury, and a voice rang out from the surrounding blackness.

"**YOU CANNOT. ESCAPE ME."**

* * *

The Hokage sat back in his chair with a whoosh of air, picking up his pipe and reading it. Iruka slouched across from him, looking as tired as the old man felt. Below them, lay the boy that they both cherished, who was sleeping peacefully, the gauntlet finally quiet at his side.

The new seal that the Hokage had placed on Naruto was still visible on Naruto's upper arm. In the center was a spiral, much like the seal on Naruto's stomach, but odd, spiderlike tendrils spread out from the spiral. The tendrils connected to each other and formed a web of black, spreading around Naruto's shoulder, stretching all the way to his shoulder blade on his back, and his right pec on his chest. The black webbing crawled down his arm all the way to where tanned flesh met the red metal of the gauntlet.

The Hokage sighed. "I think it is time for an explanation, Iruka."

Rising to his feet, and walking over to the window, the aged man gazed out over the village he loved.

"The Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume, or the Claws of the Blood Spirit, are very, very old." The Sandaime began. "The gauntlet originated from the West, and it was part of a suit of armor that belonged to a very evil man by the name of Drucalu, who lived nearly 200 years ago. When he died, his spirit was sealed into his armor and the pieces of the suit were separated. The right gauntlet came to the elemental nations by way of a merchant, who thought to sell a 'rare artifact from the west' to someone here," the Hokage grimaced.

Iruka sat, rapt with attention. He was witnessing a fraction of what made the Sandaime known as "The Professor", and he was not about to miss a bit.

"The merchant was attacked by bandits and was killed. The bandit leader, an unknown man, took the gauntlet as a prize and placed it on himself. He went insane with bloodlust, tearing into his men with wild abandon. Regardless of his wounds, he butchered nearly every single one of his men using the claws on the gauntlet. One of the survivors of the bandit group described what the bandit leader turned into to an anbu guard later. The man told how the leader's very eyes turned black, misting like an evil swamp, his mouth open in a terrifying, screaming roar. Later, the anbu investigated the sight, and found the corpse of the leader. His right arm was gone, severed cleanly at the elbow joint, but there was no sign of the gauntlet." The Hokage sighed.

After a short pause, tapping his pipe, the Hokage continued.

"This was the last we heard of the gauntlet for some time. However, some 30 years ago, it resurfaced. A small farming village had been annihilated, with no survivors, but one missing corpse. A week later, another nearby village was destroyed, with the same instance of a single missing body. These villages were found in a valley, and one other village was inside it. The village hired us, and we sent a team of chunin there to defend it." The old man grimaced again, "But what they found was horrifying."

The Hokage was silent for a minute or so, and Iruka was about to ask what had happened when the Hokage continued of his own violation.

"The chunin found a wasteland of corpses. All were dismembered, bloody, and unrecognizable. In the middle of the carnage, was the corpse of an unknown man with the gauntlet, still attached to his right arm. Foolishly, one of the chunin reached out and grabbed the claws. The gauntlet immediately detached off the bloated corpse and clamped onto the chunin. The effect was immediate. The chunin reverted to something similar to the bandit leader previously described. The other two chunin were set upon by their former teammate. The insane ninja brutally slaughtered the first chunin, having caught him by surprise, but the other chunin was able to suppress the mad man with a series of ninjustsu. The body of the chunin gone crazy gave out, and the gauntlet, with no living host, detached itself to find a new body to take over. However, the surviving chunin was able to capture it, and it was brought before me for inspection."

Taking another huff from his pipe, Sarutobi began telling the last part of his tale. "When I inspected the item, I found that a large part of the spirit of Drucalu had been sealed into the right gauntlet. Drucalu's spirit had rotted, descending into the madness of bloodlust. From what I found, the gauntlet forces it's chakra through the host, overpowering his or her mind and taking over it. The spirit then drives its new body to kill every living thing in its way. The spirit's chakra gives the wielder fantastic strength and agility, as well as a near immunity to pain. However, I deemed it too dangerous to use a weapon, due to the fact that the spirit cannot tell friend from foe. I could not destroy the gauntlet though. It resisted some of my greatest ninjutsu, and not even the power of Emna could shatter it. So I decided to hide it. I created its name, and had it sealed into the Forbidden scroll, hopefully never to be heard from again."

Iruka gazed at the Hokage and said, "But how did Naruto get access to the Scroll? And WHY would he take it? I think that's going far even for him as a prank."

From what I gleaned from my crystal ball," the Hokage gestured towards the faintly glowing orb on his desk, "Mizuki tricked Naruto into taking the scroll so he could get it himself and deal with Naruto in the process. However, the idea backfired with Naruto was taken by the gauntlet. I am afraid that Mizuki was the corpse you found in the clearing where Naruto was." Although he didn't sound very remorseful at all. Traitors were dealt with harshly in Konohana.

Iruka nodded, but then another look of worry and confusion came over his face, "But what about the other chakra I felt? Was that the Kyu…" he quickly slapped his hand over his mouth, eyes widening in shock. The poor teacher was sitting in the presence of the man who made the very law he was about to break.

Sarutobi waved his hand, dismissing the near miss, "Do not worry, Iruka. I made that law to preserve Naruto's well-being from people who wanted to hurt him. I know that I can trust you. And yes, I believe that the other chakra you detected was indeed the Kyuubi's. Although why that demon interfered is questionable…" The Hokage furrowed his brow in thought.

Iruka sat in thought as well, thinking about any possibilities that could point to a conclusion.

"Also," Iruka began slowly, "How will the seal affect Naruto? Did you completely cut him off from the Spirit?"

The old Hokage sighed sadly and explained. "No I could not completely cut him off from the Spirit's influence. The seal I've placed on him is known as a 'Spider Web Seal'. The seal will stop nearly 90% of the chakra, but, like a spider's web, there are tiny holes that some chakra may leak through. But I don't know how else this seal will affect Naruto, or the leaking chakra, or even how the new seal will react with the old one! The combination of the Kyuubi's demonic chakra, Drucalu's tainted chakra, and Naruto's own pure chakra may cause a reaction I could never predict… something very, very dangerous..." the Hokage went silent.

After a few moments, the Sandaime broke off his train of thought and sighed. He walked around his desk and sat down again and looked at Iruka closely.

"Iruka, because I trust you with Naruto, I will require your help to enact a plan. Think of it as a… Private mission, assigned directly by the Hokage."

Iruka straightened up, astonished and proud that the Hokage would assign a mission to an academy teacher like him.

"What do you request of me Hokage-Sama?" Iruka said seriously, adding a small bow.

Sarutobi grinned, glancing over at Naruto for a brief moment, before saying with a slight chuckle,

"Play along."

* * *

A bit shorter then last chapter, but with a longwinded historical explanation! I like it. Yeah but R&R please! Reviews are like cookies for writers! Speaking of, anyone who guess who I based "Drucalu" off of gets magic invisible candy! Signing off,

GearsofAwesomeness

P.S. If I missed some grammer stuff SORRY! I don't have a beta, and I don't catch everything, even if I reread it multiple times T_T…


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Ich bin nicht eigenen Naruto.

The civilians and ninja of the Council of Konohana filed into the large office where they held their meetings with the Hokage. The civilians were genuinely confused as to why they had been summoned, usually they had to drag the Hokage into Council meetings. The ninja clan leaders had more of an idea what was going on, and were curious as to how the Hokage was going to deal it out to the civilians.

The Hokage himself stood at the end of the long council table, Iruka a few steps behind him, and when the last chair was filled, the Hokage said, "Greetings, Council-members. I am sure that many of you are wondering why you have been summoned at such a late hour. I will explain, but first I will tell you the reason you all have been called."

The Hokage paused for a brief moment, and said with a strong voice, "I am promoting civilian Naruto Uzumaki to Genin, and he will be placed on Kakashi Hatake's team for training."

The civilian side of the table burst into furious argument, and a few eyebrows were raised on the ninja side. The yelling was interrupted by a sleepy voice, that stated, "I know it's troublesome, Hokage-Sama, but my son told me that Naruto-san failed the exam today. What's the reason for the promotion?" The head of the Nara Clan, Shikaku, looked bored with the entire meeting, but he had raised a valid point.

"Naruto was responsible for retrieving the Forbidden Scroll of Seals and an item that had been released from it by the traitor Mizuki. He also defeated Mizuki himself using the unsealed item from the scroll."

A civilian stood up from the table, "Traitor? Where is Mizuki? Where did this information come from?"

Iruka took a step forward, "I can explain that Councilman. Mizuki tricked Naruto into stealing the Forbidden Scroll by telling him that he would be promoted if he was successful. He then planned on taking the scroll for himself, killing Naruto in the process. Naruto was able to defeat him using the item inside the scroll, and Mizuki was taken to the Interrogation and Torture sector to find out why he had done it. Unfortunately, he perished from his wounds upon arriving at the sector."

Tsume Inuzuka, clan-head of the dog using ninjas, snorted, saying "Pft. Traitor got what he deserved, planning on the murder of a fellow villager."

The Main branch leader of the Hyuuga, Hiashi, stated in his cool voice, "What of the item that Naruto-san used to defeat Mizuki-san? If it was powerful enough to inflict lethal wounds, it should be resealed into the Forbidden Scroll."

The Hokage grimaced slightly. Of course the Byakugan user would see straight to the main problem. "That is what I am going to address now. The item that was unsealed is known as the 'Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume'. It is a cursed item, and is bound to Naruto. It will not come off until his death. Due to the fact that it is a forbidden item, I will be placing him with a guardian to make sure that it does not have any side effects on the boy." Even Iruka looked slightly surprised at this. A guardian? The Hokage hadn't told him about that when they were discussing what to say in the meeting.

"Iruka Umino shall be placed as Naruto's guardian. He will provide me with reports on Naruto's situation weekly so we can keep track of the Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume. Naruto shall be confined to the village for a month before he can go outside on missions with his team to make sure he is stable." The Sandaime paused gazing around the council room. "Any questions? No? Then you all are dismissed. Thank you for coming at this late hour."

The civilians grumbled to each other as they left the council-room, disappointed that the demon child had not gotten more of a punishment, but content that he would be carefully watched from now on.

The ninjas at the council meeting were slightly more subdued, knowing how dangerous an item would have to be in order to be sealed into the Forbidden Scroll. They knew Iruka however, and were confident that he was the only person who could keep someone like Naruto in check.

Iruka himself was stunned. He had barely managed to stop himself from outright gaping at the Hokage after he had announced Iruka's new position as Naruto's guardian. He had seen Naruto as a younger brother more and more recently, but this seemed to really seal the deal.

He immediately began mentally preparing. Would Naruto move into his apartment? It was a 2 room bachelor pad so he would have to make space. How would he go on missions to support himself? Would he have to accompany Naruto on his missions when he started them?

The elderly Hokage patted Iruka solidly on the back, chuckling slightly at the look of concentration on the chuunin's face. "Iruka. I have everything planned already", he said assuring the young man. "I will provide a slightly larger apartment for you both to live in that is close to the tower. You will receive pay equivalent to an A-rank mission every week in place of you going out to do missions. Naruto will still receive the allowance I am currently giving him as well. As for missions with his team, kakashi should be able to keep Naruto well in control. You can fill him in on anything specific that he may need to know about Naruto if there are any… Issues."

Iruka nodded, not really surprised how easily the Hokage had read his thoughts. "What about Naruto? Where is he now?" Iruka questioned.

"He is in the Hospital. Medical Ninjutsu has never been my strongpoint, so I sent him nthere to make sure he had no physical anomalies. Come. WE shall go and visit him to see if he is awake and we can give him the good news that he had a roommate!"

* * *

Naruto slowly slipped into consciousness. His mind was a little foggy, and he felt vaguely thirsty. He lazily gazed around at his surroundings. 'Oh. I'm in the Hospital again' he thought, mind still running at a snails pace.

The sun was just coming up. It was pretty nice really. Naruto enjoyed the sunrise for a few moments before he decided to get up.

With practiced ease, he slipped out of the various monitoring wires and latches and began stumbling into the bathroom. He really needed a drink. So thirsty. His limbs felt like lead, especially his right arm. It especially was throbbing dully with a quiet pain.

He ignored it however, because he really wanted some water! He managed to nearly fall through the bathroom door, and walked over to the sink. He reached up with his left arm and turned on the faucet, because his right arm still hurt for some reason. He hadn't bothered looking at it yet, and instead looked into the mirror above the faucet, expecting to see blue eyes and sun kissed hair.

Black eyes, pure dark as a void, stared straight back at him instead. A leer, evil as they come, spread over his reflection exposing a terribly sharp set of teeth.

He screamed and thrashed, falling backwards as his right arm smashed right into the mirror. As shards of mirror fell around him, he finally looked again at his right arm. His eyes widened as he gazed at the demonic piece of armor, spikes still encrusted with blood. He collapsed and nearly threw up on the bathroom floor when he saw a hair stuck on one of his knuckle-pieces. Stained a dark red, but it had definitely had a pale silver color beforehand.

Memories began floating into the forefront of his mind. Duping the guards and the Hokage, collecting the Scroll, the unsealing process, releasing this thing, and then… Nothing. Naruto couldn't remember anything after the Gauntlet attached itself to him. But according to the blood and, he shivered, feeling nauseous again, the hair, he had killed. Brutally killed. The villagers were going to go insane. They would kill him. They would beat him like they never had before. He wouldn't get up again, he wouldn't be able to walk to the hospital again, and he wouldn't fall asleep crying again. He would die.

He was going to die.

That thought alone made him panic beyond reasoning. He HAD to live. He had to live to become Hokage, and he had to marry Sakura, and he had to beat Sasuke and he had to LIVE.

Naruto pulled himself up off of the bathroom floor and crashed into the sink. He cut up his feet as he stepped over mirror shards. In every refracted piece he saw an evil face leering at him, beckoning him towards death.

Crashing out into the hallway, Naruto tripped over to the nearest window. He reached up and tore it off its hinges with his right arm, sending glass all over the hallway. A squad of nurses, who had come after hearing the mirror shatter, screamed at what they saw.

A young boy, dressed in nothing but a hospital gown, with a bloody, spiked gauntlet tearing a window out of the very wall and trying to clamber through was probably quite frightening to them. But to seasoned ninja like the Hokage and Iruka, who had run up after hearing the crashing noises, this was a cause for action.

"NARUTO!" The normally calm Hokage barked, "Stop immediately! Come over here!"

The authorative tone in the normally grandfatherly voice broke through to Naruto and he turned towards the Old man and Iruka. He stopped scrabbling at the hole in the wall and stood up straight in the pile of glass and debris, looking lost and scared as anything.

Iruka's brotherly instincts kicked in, and he picked his way through the shards on the ground over to Naruto. He enveloped him in a hug, which Naruto almost flinched away from, but managed to relax into it. He did not return it, as he didn't want to hurt Iruka with the… thing on his arm.

"Come on Naruto. Let's go with the Hokage and talk about your uh… Arm Problem." Iruka said soothingly to the young boy in his arms.

Naruto stiffly nodded, his panic ebbing away at the poor attempt at joking. Old man and Iruka were the 2 people he trusted, they wouldn't hurt him.

As Iruka picked him up and carried him over the glass, Naruto caught a glimpse of his reflection in a broken shard. His eyes were blue again, and nothing of the evil leer remained on his face. As he was put down he remembered that evil face and shuddered a little. What WAS that?

* * *

Naruto sat stunned in a chair in the Hokage's office. So he had not one, but TWO demonic entities battling for dominance inside of his body, one in his arm, one in his stomach, both held back by the powerful seals of two different Hokages. And he had killed. He had apparently lost control and killed Mizuki and nearly killed Iruka, but had stopped himself long enough to be sealed.

The Old Man had explained everything about the Kyuubi as well as the Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume all in one conversation. It had taken most of the day, and it hurt Naruto's head, and he felt betrayed that the Old Man had held back information about him.

The elderly Hokage sighed. He was getting too old for this. "Naruto. I'm sorry I did not tell you about the Kyuubi. But it had to be done. If you had known about the demon that you hold, you could have plunged into self-loathing and madness. I had to prevent that, which is why I created the law that prevents anyone from speaking of it in front of you or the younger generation. They are too ignorant to see you as a hero, a jailor of their most feared enemy. You are strong. You are a protector of this village and its people." His speech seemed to slightly invigorate the young boy, and he continued. "I am very proud of how you were able to hold yourself back from hurting Iruka, it shows your true mental fortitude. But because the Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume are so dangerous, we have to make sure you are protected form yourself. I am having you move to live closer to the tower and you will receive a ninja guardian."

Naruto's feelings of happiness were quickly squashed by the last words. 'A ninja guardian?' he thought, 'Oh man, it's probably gonna be some fuddy duddy that won't let me do anything!'.

"Iruka shall be your guardian. He will watch over you and help you learn to cope with the Ketsueki Seishin no Tsume. You will spend the night with him tonight, and tomorrow you both will move into the apartment I have for you." The Hokage grinned, seeing the dismal look quickly shift into happiness.

"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "This is gonna be great! We will be able to eat ramen all the time and then do ninja things… Wait" Naruto sobered again suddenly, "The test with… Mizuki-sensei… That wasn't real right? I'm not a genin…"

The Hokage suddenly stiffened and put his back up straight in his chair, "Preposterous. You need ninja training in order to control your new artifact, seeing as it cannot be taken off. You are to be put on a team with an empty slot as soon as possible" he said in his most officious voice.

Naruto slowly broke into a grin. "You mean… I'm really a…"

Iruka, who had been watching the conversation from the side, steped forward, trying his hardest to look official as possible. "Citizen Naruto. It is my great honor to present you your ninja headband" he declared pulling out the one the Hokage had slipped him from behind his back and handing to the beaming boy. "You are now officially a Genin of Konoha. Congratulations."

Naruto, catching on to the game that the Hokage and Iruka were playing, calmly took his, HIS OWN, headband and carefully tied it onto his forehead. "I accept the responsibility with honor" he said solemnly, the effect slightly ruined by the huge grin on his face.

The three in the Hokage's office were able to hold the dignified poses for a few seconds, before Naruto leapt to his feet and shouted, "I AM A NINJA! I WILL BECOME HOKAGE! BELIEVE IT!"

Laughing, Iruka and the Hokage lost their dignified poses, and yelled with surprise as Naruto pulled them both into a tight hug.

As the sun set again, the prospects for a new day were awakened. The future of one Uzumaki Naruto was truly bright, but every light has a shadow at its back.

* * *

It certainly has been a while. I think I'm doomed to never be able to work on anything consistently. Sorrrrrryyyyy. But i hope you enjoy this chapter. You can probably tell where i left off a couple years ago, and where I restarted recently. I may do another chapter soon. I may not. Not making any promises.


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